Dr Winnifred Groves

Lecturer

I have worked at Kingston since September 2014, and I am currently a lecturer in academic practice, in the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre (LTEC).

My role in LTEC is primarily to contribute towards the enhancement of the Personal Tutor Scheme (PTS). I liaise with personal tutor leads across the different faculties as part of the project management team. I actively conduct ongoing needs analysis and support the implementation of PTS policy. My vision for this role is to be able to conduct research into staff and student perceptions and experiences of the PTS and contribute towards greater student engagement and satisfaction.

In addition, I am working with colleagues on the Kingston's Academic Practice Standards framework (KAPS), Kingston's HEA-accredited framework which recognises the professional practice of experienced colleagues at Kingston within the UK Professional Standard Framework. As part of the scheme I am actively involved in gathering and analysing data in view to explore the correlation between staff workshop attendance and performance in the programme. I make an active contribution to several working groups, the Personal Tutoring Forum and KAPS team.

Besides my work in LTEC, I also work with colleagues in Kingston Business School, Department of Management, where I am a lecturer in leading and change and employee relations. In addition, I cover lectures on organisational behaviour as and when required.

Before joining the Faculty, I was a lecturer and personal tutor at Kingston College where I actively contributed to curriculum design, delivery assessment and the evaluation of several modules: Human Resource Management, Research Methods and Work-Based Research Proposal (to foundation degree students), Organisational Behaviour and Study Skills. I also worked with colleagues in identifying training and development opportunities for staff.

I am a former nurse with clinical background in adult nursing. I have 10 years of clinical experience working in NHS hospital-based nursing and as a community nurse. In my various roles including that of staff nurse, senior nurse and community nurse, my main interest was in people development, mentoring and supervision and continuing professional development. I acted as mentor to student nurses and newly qualified staff nurses. I made an active contribution of designing programmes for student nurses and mentoring scheme for newly qualified nurses.

I remain actively connected and engaged with the healthcare delivery sector through academic publications. My diversified and interdisciplinary background of management and healthcare has equipped me with interpersonal skills and a broad range of research interests; it has fostered a profound interest in me to explore further how learners learn and the need to align learning and development activities and organisation with student's needs in order to enhance effectiveness and efficiency. Also it has enabled me to have better insights in providing rounded support to students and staff within a healthy environment which adopts holistic problem solving approaches to maximise higher educational experiences for both students and staff.

Professional bodies

I am an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). I am also a member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Research interests

My current area of interest is centred around teaching and learning, continuing professional development, human resource management, cultural issues and their impact on accessing high-quality education. I am particularly interested in research on how staff can be supported to be better equipped for their role in the Personal Tutor Scheme. My interest extends to exploring how learning conditions and opportunities can be improved for black minority ethnic students.

Other areas of scholarly interest are: evaluation of nursing services in healthcare delivery; diagnosing and prescribing by nurses; nurses' role expansion; and public service research.